Millionaire’s Shortbread Cake

Millionaire’s Shortbread Cake is a fantastic riff on its namesake bar. Layers of brown sugar sponge cake are piled full of caramel sauce, chocolate ganache and homemade shortbread. Who wants seconds?

One of my favourite pastimes is dreaming up new cake recipes and working out how to style them. I’ve been toying with the idea of a millionaire’s shortbread cake since the summer. But it was only last week that I finally got around to writing my thoughts down.

This bake manages to combine – in cake form – the 3 essential elements of traditional millionaires shortbread:

• delicate, crisp and buttery shortbread
• smooth as silk caramel
• decadent chocolate

Why be forced to pick between cake and caramel shortbread if you can have it all? That’s my winning theory today, anyway.

What is Millionaire’s Shortbread Cake?

I’ve used a brown sugar sponge as the base for this cake, and incorporated chunks of shortbread cookies, caramel sauce and chocolate ganache into each layer. So the trio of flavours in traditional millionaire’s shortbread all have a starring role to play.

After much deliberation, I plumped for Italian meringue buttercream subtly flavoured with caramel.

Making Italian buttercream is a lengthier process than whipping up a batch of regular buttercream. But the ultra silky smooth texture is worth the extra effort. It really does compliment the very notion of caramel in this cake.

Italian buttercream is less sweet than regular buttercream and so works in perfect harmony with the caramel and chocolate sauces without turning the cake into an oppressively sweet affair.

Finally, I decided to turn this caramel shortbread cake into a drip cake. Partly to give it a striking & impressive look but also because it’s a surefire way to ensure that a good portion of caramel sauce accompanies each slice.

This millionaire’s caramel cake is rather dapper in the looks department and a total joy to eat.

Within each layer a gently hit of caramel and chocolate flavour bursts through along with a satisfying buttery crunch from the shortbread cookies. To top it all, the buttercream is out of this world tasty and smooth as silk.

Why Use Brown Sugar in Cakes

Using brown sugar in place of regular white sugar adds an extra depth of flavour to a cake.

Brown sugar imparts a subtle, but wonderful, hint of caramel to a sponge cake and yields a slightly darker colour.

These qualities are not always suitable. But the substitution works like a charm for this millionaire’s shortbread cake, where the aim of the game is to create a rich, buttery and flavour forward cake to work in harmony with the caramel and chocolate elements.

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Tips for Making This Millionaire’s Cake

• My top tip that must be adhered to for this millionaire’s cake is to use proper butter in the sponge cake. Since we are trying to replicate the rich & buttery taste of shortbread in the cake, using a butter substitute, such as baking margarine will not do. Butter is essential to produce a rich & indulgent crumb
• Prior to mixing, ensure that the brown sugar has not solidified into lumps. If it has, these lumps need to be removed before baking can begin. Either crush the sugar with a spoon, rub it between fingers or pulse through a food processor
• Make the caramel sauce well ahead of time – preferably the day before – and store at room temperature until ready to use. Check it has cooled to around 20C/ 68F before attempting to drizzle over the cake and do not pour warm sauce onto the cake as it will melt the buttercream
• Make the chocolate sauce around 1 hour before using it. Again, ensure it is room temperature before using on the cake. Similarly, if used when warm the sauce will ruin the buttercream
• If either the caramel sauce or chocolate sauce has thickened too much to drizzle, heat gently in the micowave in 5 second bursts until it is just loose enough to drizzle
• If making this cake on a very hot day, please be aware that the caramel and chocolate sauce may be looser than intended. The cake will still turn out delicious, but it may be harder to achieve a neat finish when decorating
• Whilst all of the components of this millionaire’s cake can be made ahead of time, I recommend assembling the cake on the day you intend to serve it. The shortbread will soften once exposed to air/ buttercream, so this cake is best eaten quickly
• If eaten within 24 hours, there is no need to store this cake in the fridge

How to Decorate a Drip Cake

My main concern, when decorating this caramel shortbread cake, was the caramel sauce bleeding too far into the centre of the cake, and interfering with the chocolate ganache.

I wanted neat sections of both, so here is what I did:

• I piped a thin circle (approx 1/2 cm) of buttercream around the top of the cake – about 1 1/2 cm from the edge. This acted as a barrier between the caramel and chocolate sections
• I squeezed my caramel sauce around the edge of the cake, ensuring it flowed to the rim of the buttercream barrier and started to drip down the sides of the cake. I used a squeezy bottle to do this, but a piping bag will work just as well
• Next, I spooned the chocolate ganache into the centre of the cake and used a small palette knife to ensure it reached the buttercream rim
• Finally, I piped over the buttercream circle using a fancy nozzle to hide my makeshift barrier

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Although these steps are straightforward, the result is definitely impressive. Give it a go yourself if you haven’t attempted a drip cake before (this was my first one) and don’t’ forget to tag #jane_littlesugarsnaps on Instagram so I can see how you got on.

Find my other fancy layers cakes:

• Triple Chocolate Layer Cake
• Turkish Delight Cake
• Mint Choc Chip Cake
• Triple Coffee Cake
• White Chocolate & Peppermint Cake